Washington Commanders News & Rumors

SUNDAY, 10:58am: Despite a report from Albert Breer of TheMMQB indicating that the Redskins would not be willing to use the franchise tag on Cousins for a second consecutive year, ESPN’s Adam Schefter, like La Canfora, hears that Washington will indeed use the tag if it cannot reach a long-term deal with Cousins before free agency opens in March. Schefter adds that if the Redskins had to tag Cousins for a third straight year in 2018, it would cost the team over $34MM, which gives the quarterback some leverage heading into contract negotiations.

THURSDAY, 1:15pm: As we look ahead to the spring, Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins stands as the top player on the free agent market. While big names like Chandler Jones, Kawann Short, Jamie Collins, and Dont’a Hightower are also eligible for free agency, Cousins stands to make the most money given the dearth of quality QBs in the NFL. In order to keep him, the Redskins are willing to use the franchise tag for the second year in a row, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. 

Cousins is after a lucrative long-term deal, but a second franchise tag wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize. The tag would grant him a 120% raise on his current deal which comes out to roughly $23.94MM for 2017. Of course, that potential outcome also gives his reps a favorable jumping-off point for multi-year contract. If the Redskins allow Cousins to reach the open market, the bidding could get even higher and several teams in need of a signal caller have told La Canfora they will pursue him if given the opportunity.

Heading into today’s game, Cousins has a 6-3-1 record on the year with a 67.2% completion percentage. The advanced metrics aren’t as wild about his play, however. Pro Football Focus has Cousins ranked as just the 17th best QB in the NFL this year, behind Ryan Tannehill, Brian Hoyer, and Tyrod Taylor.

We should note that Albert Breer of The MMQB is hearing that the Redskins are unlikely to use the tag on Cousins. Here’s a full rundown of his latest column discussing the Washington QB and much more.

The Redskins’ Kirk Cousins has continued to make the case this year that he’s a franchise quarterback, most recently completing 41 of 53 passes for 449 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-26 loss to the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. The impending free agent stands to cash in over the coming months, and he’ll look to do just that after the season.

[RELATED: Cousins Tops 2017 Free Agent Power Rankings]

Cousins’ starting point for long-term contract negotiations will be $23.94MM per year, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Chris Wesseling of NFL.com). Placing the franchise tag on Cousins in the offseason would also cost the Redskins $23.94MM – a notable increase from the $19.95MM salary he’s making this year as their franchise player.

Given his remarkable output since midway through the 2015 campaign, multiple general managers told Rapoport that Cousins is likely to receive upward of $20MM per annum on a long-term deal. After getting off to a rough start last year, his first as a starter, Cousins had a breakout Week 7 showing against the Buccaneers – the “You like that!” game – and hasn’t looked back.

As Wesseling notes, Cousins has completed 70.1 percent of throws with 43 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 8.4 yards per attempt and a 108.1 passer rating across his past 20 starts. The Redskins have also done their share of winning with the 2012 fourth-round pick, having gone 15-11-1 since he took the reins from Robert Griffin III entering last season, and the 6-4-1 club currently holds a wild-card spot a year after earning an NFC East crown.

There are conflicting reports over whether the Redskins would tag Cousins again, but it’s hard to imagine the team letting him hit the open market after the season. A quarterback-desperate franchise would surely dip into free agency and give Cousins $20MM-plus per year in advance of his age-29 season, which would make him the 13th signal-caller in the league to receive at least that much annually. If a team matches his asking price of $23.94MM, he’d fall behind only Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer and Drew Brees in average yearly value. It’s unknown how much guaranteed money Cousins is seeking, but Luck landed a league-high $87MM as part of the extension he signed over the summer. No other QB comes close to that figure, though both another salary cap increase and having several teams vying for Cousins’ services would certainly improve his odds of approaching it.